Geographers, sociologists, philosophers etc. on covid-19

Several pieces by geographers, sociologists and philosophers – presented without commentary.

First posted 24 March 2020; last updated 6 June 2020. Thanks to those who have sent additional ones, especially Michael O’Rourke, Dirk and Foucault News. I’m no longer updating this as much as before, as there are just too many pieces, but will add links if sent to me. Increasingly I’m adding pieces reflecting on the situation universities are in.

Bibliographies and General Resources

A much more extensive, chronologically ordered, and five-language list is available from The Thomas Project.

I’ll add more pieces as I’m told about them. There are now just too many to add everything. Please use comments on this page (now enabled) wherever possible, and provide links please – rather than on Facebook or Twitter.

https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-march-18-2020/
Historical geographer Graham Mooney reflects on the history of measures like isolation and quarantines — as well as elite indifference to the plight of the poor and working classes during infectious disease outbreaks.
his book Intrusive Interventions: Public Health, Domestic Space, and Infectious Disease Surveillance in England 1840-1914

Thanks Phil, both added. I don’t think I have anything useful to say about this, and ended up compiling the list almost by chance – post a few pieces, get some additional ones in comments, and so on. There is certainly a risk in rushing to judgment, and a lot of takes seem to merely confirm people’s existing views. Hope you’re recovering well.

Thanks Clare – I took a couple from Foucault News. Not sure how long I’ll keep updating this – there is so much being written, and there is a better aggregating site at The Thomas Project. Hope you’re well.

See our reflections on what the What the Covid-19 pandemic should teach us about governance – Abstract: “Reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic from a governance perspective: when society faces a real crisis that needs strong coordinated action, it looks to the state and scientific/medical experts, along with cooperation amongst civil society backed up by police enforcement. The private sector plays an important role in various ways, such as ensuring food supplies in the face of selfish freeriding panic buyers, but many private sector companies look to the state for loans and bailouts. Some libertarians complain that it’s all an excuse for state control of our lives, but few take this seriously as we face a real crisis that gravely threatens societal wellbeing. We also recognise need for cooperation amongst countries to provide for coordinated international action. Looking back, we can see that the state could have done more to proactively restrict ‘wet markets’ as these appear to be the source of this zoonotic virus. Looking forward we can see that state intervention is likely to be as crucial to promoting economic recovery from the crash following this pandemic as it was after the 1929 crash. When things return to ‘normal’ and calls resume to shrink the state, ignore ‘so called experts’, revert to selfish national isolationism, recognise ‘that there’s no such thing as society’, rely on dynamism of private sector, etc., remember what we relied on to address this crisis. Also, remember these times when we again start to hear arguments that climate change is best addressed through private sector action, that experts can’t be trusted, that the state should not interfere in trying to steer society, that societal behaviour can’t be changed overnight, etc., i.e. it isn’t a corporate Iron Man that is likely to save us”https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/people/academic-staff/peter-jones/dr-peter-js-jones/files/reflectingonthecovidoutbreakgovernance/

Saskia Sassen w/ DiEM25
think you can just leave these links in the comment section for folks to scroll thru with a note above to let folks know and then you don’t have to keep up curating in the same way

A bit of a rant: I’m sorry, this haste to jump on the Covid 9 bandwagon is slightly repugnant. To think needs time and not just regurgitating stuff as seemingly relevant. If not already mentioned, I would suggest re-reading Michel Serres’ La Parasite (1980) for starting to understand how viruses permeate biological, social and academic life.
Peter

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this new book by Frédéric Keck, but is certainly useful in this context and written before Covid-19, so not written to take advantage of the current crisis: https://www.dukeupress.edu/avian-reservoirs

Dear Stuart, here is a link to a detailed piece I have written with Jan Simon Hutta and Christoph Schemann on “Thinking corona measures with Foucault”. It would be great if you could include the link in your list. All the best!

Dear Stuart
Bruno Latour’s blog has an ‘exercise’ to help us reflect on the opportunities and threats opened up. This is distinct as he is asking us what we think colectively rather than telling us what he thinks or what he think others might think.http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/852.html
Peter

here is a short article written by me (Dante Di Matteo) and Ilaria Mariotti about the possible role of peripheries in the following phases of Covid-19, in regard to the new working spaces (coworking). It is in Italian language and freely available on the online journal «EyesReg»: